Adobe is a well known company in our filming industry (and beyond). But for me personally, it was time to ask what lies behind just the name. So I’ve reached out with the request to visit some of their facilities in the US, intending to “create a face”, asking who this huge company actually is. As an avid Adobe Premiere user (Since version 4.0), I’ve always wanted to meet the people who are behind the development of this software, so I was truly happy to see Adobe responding favourably to my offer by inviting me to spend a few days with Patrick Palmer (Principal Product Manager) and some of his Adobe Premiere team members.
Adobe’s HQ in San Jose
During the summer, I had the chance to visit three of Adobe’s offices in the US (Santa Monica, San Jose and San Francisco). My intention was to meet the people who are behind the software I use for editing and try to understand their professional routine just a tiny bit better. During my stay, I met the people who are in charge on Adobe Premiere’s quality control, VR, and software designing. I also had a nice “facility introduction” at the headquarter in San Jose and at “the cloud” in San Francisco.
Yes, Adobe Premiere has its bugs and yes, I lost some of my hair throughout the years while using it, BUT it is encouraging to see the pride and dedication the people working on it have. I hope that the evidence of their sincere effort to make Premiere more stable and responsive will be seen in every new release – as at Adobe, they are totally aware of the discomfort and criticism the filming community has when something does not work well.
I hope you will take a minute (or 19) to sit back and enjoy this exclusive “behind the scenes” journey.
Adobe office in San Francisco
Inside Adobe’s office in San Francisco
Of course not all subjects can be covered during such a short stay, please feel free to comment in the section below if you’d like to contribute to the conversation.
Please check our other Factory Tours at FUJIFILM, SIGMA lenses, and Cartoni
Full discloser: Johnnie was a guest of Adobe. Transportation and accommodation for the trip were paid by them.

Are you an After Effects user new to Resolve 15? The Fusion Page in Resolve uses nodes instead of layers which takes some adjusting to. Let’s look at the evolution of Resolve and then 5 tips.
Fusion interface: 2 Viewers, Node Editor, Inspector
One of the biggest news at NAB 2018 was DaVinci Resolve 15 and the integration of Fusion, a node based compositing app. (Previously we wrote about Resolve 15’s NAB announcement here). Da Vinci Systems announced Resolve in 2004, a high end, expensive 2K color grading system. Blackmagic Design bought the assets of Da Vinci Systems in 2009, Eyeon Software Inc’s Fusion in 2014, and the DAW Fairlight in 2016. Resolve 15 has 6 pages that you perform specific tasks in. The Media Page is like a project, The Edit for editorial, Fusion for motion graphics/composting/vfx, Color for color grading, Fairlight for audio, and Deliver is where you output your files.
you do specific tasks in separate Pages and work left to right
Previously Resolve 14 and Fusion 9 were separate apps, but Resolve could send a timeline to Fusion via the “New Fusion Connect Clip” command. With Fusion now being in Resolve 15, you can work quicker and make changes easier. Hence being able to do everything in one app will appeal to a lot of creative professionals. With DaVinci Resolve 15 offering a free version and a studio version for $300 (you own it), many editors and motion artists will try it out.
1. You create Fusion Titles from the Edit Page
A common motion graphics task is to create a title or lower third. Resolve 15 adds 3D Fusion titles to the Effects Library, similar to what is available in After Effects. Find a Fusion Title you like and drag the title to the timeline. You then make changes to the title from the Inspector panel (similar to the Effects Controls panel in AE). An icon (3 stars) on the Fusion Title in the timeline indicates it is a Fusion clip.
adding a Fusion Title from the Effects Library
2. Using the Fusion Page
Put your playhead over a clip in the timeline in the Edit Page. When you click on the Fusion Page you see a MediaIn node and a MediaOut node. The MediaIn is the clip from the Edit Page, and the MediaOut is the output of the Fusion Page.
Putting your playhead over a clip in the timeline results in MediaIn and MediaOut Nodes in the Fusion Page
Resolve 15 has an integrated timeline, so whatever you do in Fusion is available in the Edit, Color, Fairlight and Delivery Pages. What is important in Fusion is that you are connected to the MediaOut Node, or you will not see anything in any of the Pages.
mediaOut1 disconnected: We don’t see anything
3. The Fusion Page Interface and the logic of nodes
Where as AE works by compositing layers on top of each other, Fusion connects nodes together in a flow chart or flow. Just like AE, you can key footage, track and stabilize footage, use expressions, and create motion graphics. Some advantages of Resolve are Vector Paint, true 3D compositing and particle systems.
The Fusion Page has 4 sections, with the Media Pool and Effects Library on the left, 2 viewers at the top, the Work Area on the bottom, and the Inspector on the right. You create your node trees in the Node Editor, which along with the Spline and Keyframe Editors make up the Work Area. By default you see the Node Editor at the bottom, and the Spline and Keyframe Editors are closed.
Fusion Page Interface
There are 2 viewers which you can load a selected node in. (you can also change to a one viewer layout). Load a node into a viewer by selecting it and pressing 1 (left viewer) or 2 (right viewer).
Viewing the MediaOut node in the right viewer
4 . The Toolbar lets you quickly add often used nodes
The Toolbar above the Node Editor lets you add often used nodes like text and masks. Resolve calls these nodes Tools, and even more tools can be found in the Effects Library. Let’s add a Color Corrector to see how this works. Make sure MediaIn1 is selected, and click the Color Corrector icon in the Toolbar. Color Correction1 now appears between the 2 media nodes. You can now modify the color correction settings in the Inspector.
Color Corrector Inspector Tools
5. Basics of working with Nodes
What would be a transform (scale, rotation, etc) or an effect in AE (color correction, blur, etc.) is called a Tool in Fusion. You create separate nodes for each Tool you want to add. So if you wanted to add a Color Corrector, a Transform (to resize)and a Blur Tool, you would add 3 nodes.
a basic node tree with 3 Tools
We have to use Merge Nodes to connect 2 clips together or connect a clip to text. To see how this works lets add text to a clip. Select the MediaIn1 node, and click the Text icon from the shortcut menu. The 2 clips are automatically connected with a Merge 1 Node, with the Text being the foreground (top) and MediaIn1 the background (bottom). If you want to connect another clip, that requires another Merge Node, as Merge Nodes have only 3 inputs (Foreground, Background, and Effect Mask).
Merge Node – Text+ Tool highlighted in Red
To keep the node tree from getting confusing, rename a node by selecting it and pressing F2. This is particularly important with complex node trees so you know what each node is doing.
Rename node with F2 shortcut
Extra Tip: Creating a Fusion Clip in the Edit Page
When you need to create more complex composites, creating a Fusion Clip from the Edit Page is a quick way to work. From the Edit Page, select multiple clips in the timeline, right click and select “New Fusion Clip. In my example I have 3 clips, so Fusion automatically connects the 3 clips with 2 Merge Nodes. I then changed the Composite Mode for each Merge Node and added a soft mask to the texture.
New Fusion Clip with Merge Nodes automatically connected
So that’s a quick look at working with nodes in Resolve 15. Hopefully these tips help you get comfortable with Fusion in Resolve 15. For a deeper dive into Resolve 15, download the New Features and the Configuration Guides available at the BlackMagic Design Resolve Center webpage.
Are you a Resolve 15/Fusion user? Do you have additional tips to share with us? Let us know in the comments below!

We all know being an editor and editing can be a fun and creative thing, but it can also be time consuming and counterproductive when you’re not really “into it”. These tips will help you be more efficient.
You have something to deliver to a client today, or it’s Sunday, there is a beautiful weather outside, and you feel stuck in front of your computer and that empty timeline of your editing project?
Here are five quick tips to make you more efficient:
1. Avoid Disturbances
Simply shut off everything that can be distracting like E-mails, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Phone… you name it. Cut Internet. It can look like it’s just a waste of two or three minutes, but it cuts you off from your editing session, and it can be hard coming back in after.
However, you don’t have to edit eight hours straight, go take some breaks every hours or two, go drink something, talk to somebody for a minute, do a little exercise… you’ll come back on your edit with a fresh eye.
Write down your ideas first.
2. Don’t edit, just yet
Don’t edit straight away. Once your project is fully loaded with all your amazing footages, sounds, musics, graphics, take a paper and a pen, an iPad, a towel or whatever and just think about it.
It’s pretty much useless to blind edit, you’ll lose some time and you won’t be more efficient. Instead, just write down your ideas, how you want to tell the story, the path you will follow during that edit session.
It’ll enable you to structure your ideas and your story.
3. Assign Keyboard Shortcuts to Your NLE
Taking five or ten minutes to edit your most used shortcuts at the beginning of a project can really save you days of work, simply by assigning the tools YOU use the most.
4. Color Code Your Material
It can seem boring, but color coding and organizing all your materials can be a life saver.
Take some time to assign a color to each scene or interview so you can find them quickly in your bins or in your timeline. When your client is sitting right next to you, asking you for a modification on the edit, you’ll quickly be able to show him what you’ve got.
Apart from looking colorful, it will show him that you’re a really organized person, ready for the next job.
5. Try and Destroy
Don’t be afraid to try things that can seem to be weird or not logical, invert your sequences, start by the end, play with the speed of your footage…
It will not work every time, but you can sometime find some interesting and new ways to tell your story, because there is not only one way to tell a story.
Remember when you’re editing that it’s a technical thing, but also an artistic part of the project, and that there is no rules you can’t break.
What about you, when editing on a lazy day, do you have some tips on how to stay creative and efficient? Please share with us in the comment section below.

Final Cut Pro 10.4 and the upcoming iMac Pro were demoed at the third annual FCPX Creative Summit last week, showing Apple’s continuing trend of relaxing secrecy around its professional hardware and software roadmap.
When Apple has previously shown pre-release software to invited guests, it was always behind closed doors and subject to participants signing NDAs. Apple publicly pre-announced the iMac Pro earlier this year, with a vow to open up a bit more when it came to its professional offerings, and this very public display of an un-released version of Final Cut Pro 10.4 is a welcome validation of this new strategy.
Final Cut Pro X users may well be familiar with proponents Alex Gollner, Chris Fenwick, Richard Taylor and Peter Wiggins, amongst others. It was these people who took to Twitter to share the news about Final Cut Pro 10.4 and the features coming later this year.
Final Cut Pro 10.4
New features in Final Cut Pro 10.4 are said to include:
HEVC (H.265) Support
VR tools
HDR (PQ and HLG) support and tools
Colour wheels
Colour curves
Expanded LUT support
New white balance tools
Timeline clip selection commands that jump to specific roles
Updated audio plugins to better complement Logic Pro X
I know a lot of people couldn’t tolerate the colour board in FCP X. I can understand why Apple came up with the colour board, as it made better use of the limited space in the Inspector, providing four controls on one board, rather than four separate wheels. It also meant people who didn’t know about complimentary colours neutralising each other could still easily remove colour casts. But there is no doubt that more control was necessary and several popular third-party colour grading plugins came to exist because of this.
As a professional colourist, these new colour tools are hardly going to make me stop using DaVinci Resolve, but there are plenty of times when smaller jobs come through our production company that don’t have any budget allocated for colour grading but do need a basic primary balance. With the new Hue vs Hue and Hue vs Sat controls, we will now be able to perform proper balances using X-Rite Colorchecker Video charts inside Final Cut Pro X, which will save us time.
iMac Pro
The other big news here is that these Final Cut Pro 10.4 demos were performed on the new iMac Pro due for release before Christmas. According to those present, Apple demoed 8K ProRes 4444 and Raw 4K R3D media playing back in real time, un-rendered. There is a lot of excitement about the capabilities of this new iMac, so these reports will no doubt stoke the fires of anticipation even further.
Are you planning on purchasing the iMac Pro when it is launched? Will you be installing Final Cut Pro 10.4 on it when you do? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

This is the second tutorial in my editing tips series. This time around, I will show you how splitting your audio and video edits will create a naturalistic flow when editing dialogue sequences. I will break down not only how to split edits, but why you should split edits.
Absorb Your Viewer
For me, one of the most powerful aspects of filmmaking is the ability to place your viewer in your scene and give them a privileged vantage point over what’s unfolding. If everything comes together just right, the viewer should become totally absorbed in the world they see on the screen in front of them. As the editor, you carry a lot of the burden of selling the director’s vision to the viewer convincingly, particularly when it comes to editing dialogue sequences.
Prescience
Imagine you and some friends are having a conversation. You are part of the conversation, but you are not talking right now. Unless you can see in to the future, you wouldn’t know who was going to speak next, or at what point one of your friends may interject. Because of this, you would only know to look at one of your friends a second or so after they start talking.
To put it another way, imagine you’re walking down the street when suddenly you spot a friend walking a bit further ahead of you. It would be incredibly weird if, just as you go to shout out their name, they turned around and looked directly at you. Now imagine that happening all the time, all day! You look at the front door, just as the postman pushes your letters through it. Your kids look up from the iPad you got them last Christmas at the exact moment you call their names! Yeah, never going to happen, is it?
Pretty Boxes All in a Line
Yet, all too often, when watching the work of people who are new to editing dialogue, you will find cuts that create exactly this type of effect. A major cause of this is that the act of editing – essentially connecting coloured blocks together on a timeline – is at odds with the idea of organic, jumbled, overlapping audio and video cuts. When you consider how independent our own mouths and eyes are in real life conversations, you can start to see how, to a certain extent, the timeline works against you when assembling your dialogue sequence.
Edit Like a Sculptor
Like most things in editing, though, if you approach it in an iterative way, tackling it in multiple passes, each time refining further and just like a sculptor would with a block of stone, then actually it becomes very easy to create naturalistic cuts. On your first pass, it is much easier to simply mark your lines of dialogue, or sound bites in an interview, and assemble them linearly on your timeline.
In fact this approach to editing dialogue is very similar to what we discussed in my previous article, Editing Action. You start by cutting at obvious breaks in the conversation, to establish the overall timing and content of what’s being said. That will get you pretty close, though at this stage you’ll have hard cuts and even jump cuts. On your second pass, however, you start rolling the video edits away from the audio edits (splitting the edit), to create the organic, conversational, style you’re after.
The Split
The mechanics of splitting an edit may be new to you. You have to use the Trim tool (FCPX) or Roll tool (Premiere) to roll your video edit away from the audio edit. By default, though, this won’t be possible, as both programmes lock the two together to maintain sync. Most of the time this is a good thing, but not now.
In FCPX, either double click on the waveform (bottom half) of your timeline clips or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-S to ‘expand’ your audio components. In Premiere, turn off the ‘Linked Selection’ button in the Timeline’s tool bar or hold the Alt key down to temporarily disable linking. You can then roll the video either left, to create an ‘L cut’ or right, to create a ‘J cut’. You should find yourself using more J cuts then L cuts when editing dialogue, as they most closely mimic the reality of audio triggering a visual change. After this simple task is done, you will discover that your scene suddenly feels much more natural and will have a flow to it that is utterly convincing.
The Reaction
Finally, if there are any particularly long bits of a character’s dialogue, you can cut away to a reaction shot from your other character and then back again to see the last part of the first characters lines. This breaks up the visual monotony and also allows you to convey more to the viewer about the dynamics of the characters relationship, e.g. maybe the cutaway reveals the other person sneering (enemy) or smiling enthusiastically (friend) or not paying attention (arrogant), etc.
Summary
Simply cutting to each person as they start to talk creates a watchable, but unnaturally staccato scene. As you’ll see in the accompanying video, I apply this simple technique to a scene from a documentary we made earlier this year with Gary Barlow. It clearly demonstrates how editing dialogue sequences in this way, by splitting the edit, massively improves the flow of the film. In this example, you become more quickly immersed in the conversation Gary is having with his writing partner, Elliot Kennedy.
In the next tutorial, I will take this same scene to the next level by, expanding on these techniques and showing you how to lay cutaways down quickly and effectively, using three point editing.

As you probably know, Apple recently unveiled an entirely new line of Macbook Pros that introduced several changes to their design and functionality. Many professional users voiced concerns about the removal of ports, among other things. The high price and low specs on paper have also earned criticism in many articles and forums. But even for those who choose to overlook such shortcomings, one question remains unanswered: is the MacBook Pro 2016 fast enough in real life for 4K video editing?
Macbook Pro 2016 Fast Enough for 4K or Not?
Reviews for the Macbook Pro 2016 without the touch bar have been flooding the internet for the last two weeks, and we know for a fact that it isn’t fast enough to cope with a real life 4K workflow. But the new touch bar 13-inch and 15-inch models only arrived at customers’s doors today. A few reviews and the first benchmarks have been published, and the results are rather surprising in both directions.
While we do not have a Macbook Pro 2016 model for review at cinema5D just yet, we were very curious to see what other professionals are writing so far, and what the first benchmarks tests are revealing. This way, we can start to make out if the upgrade to a Macbook Pro 2016 is worth it for 4K video editing.
Macbook Pro 2016 Benchmarks
We all know that 4K editing performance is to a large degree dictated by a the speed of your machine. In other words, we need good specs and performance. The entry level Macbook Pro 2016 13-inch has a 2Ghz i5 processor, which sounds rather underwhelming considering my 2011 Macbook Pro had a 2.4ghz i5 processor. Is it slower than that? No, in reality it’s not that simple. When you look at benchmark scores you quickly see that even the entry-level, non touch bar 2016 model has some more power under the hood than expected.
Macworld has taken a closer look at the specs of all new Macbook Pro models in their Macbook Pro 2016 review.
iFixit opened up the 13-inch Macbook Pro 2016
CPU
Image Courtesy of Macworld.com
These are Macworld’s multicore CPU results of the new Macbook Pro 2016. As you can see, the entry-level 2Ghz Macbook Pro 2016 13-inch model is slightly faster than last year’s 2015 retina Macbook Pro model with 2.7Ghz. What?
On the other hand, if you expect the 2016 13-inch model with touch bar and 2.9Ghz CPU to score much higher, you’d be mistaken again, as the 2.9Ghz version is only 3.8% faster than the non-touchbar version. So even though the touch bar CPU has 30% more Ghz, it is only 4% faster.
Although I’m confused by these results, they are also revealing, and looking at benchmarks before making a purchase decision seems like a very good idea. This tells me the non touch bar version and the touch bar version have a very similar speed. And if the touch bar is the only deciding factor between the two, then many people will probably decide to live without it.
As expected, the 15-inch model scores much higher in terms of CPU performance, and just like last year’s model, it runs in a completely different class. Its CPU multicore score is about 41% higher than the 13-inch models, but surprisingly it is weaker than the 2015 model…
These results are in line with Engadget’s findings on their review, so they seem to be accurate.
GPU
Image courtesy of Macworld.com
Graphics performance is another revealing aspect about 4K editing performance. I’m relieved that at least in this aspect the 2016 machines outperform the 2015 models of Macbook Pros. We can see the 15-inch Macbook Pro 2016 features very high speeds in comparison to all other models. Also, the 13-inch models are faster than the old Macbook Pros, but again the touch bar version seems only slightly better than the non touch bar version of the Macbook pro 2016.
Disk Speed
Apple claims disk speed on their new Macbook Pro’s is insanely fast. As it turns out, this was no exaggeration. 9to5mac tested drive performance of the entry level 13-inch model and sees read speeds of up to 3GB/s and write speeds up to 2GB/s, which they say is basically the fastest drive read and write speeds of any stock computer available today. That is great, but unfortunately disk speed is only one of many important factors when it comes to a machine capable of editing 4K video.
iFixit opened up the 13-inch Macbook Pro 2016
What else?
According to another source (arstechnica.com) there are some other technical differences between the touch bar and non touch bar models that are worth pointing out:
Aside from the CPU and GPU clock speed differences, the touch bar model’s 28W CPU can run faster for longer and throttles less frequently in comparison to the non touch bar 15W CPU.
The non touch bar 2016 Macbook Pro only has two Thunderbolt 3 ports vs the four on the touch bar model. But according to arstechnica.com:
The two ports on the right side of the MacBook Pro have “reduced PCI Express bandwidth,” which Apple says means they have two PCIe 3.0 lanes worth of bandwidth at their disposal instead of the four lanes dedicated to the ports on the left side
This seems to be worse when connecting high-performance storage arrays like 4K editors usually do, so you should connect those only to the left-side ports.
In terms of RAM, unfortunately all Macbook Pro 2016 models max out at 16GB. 32 would be better and recommended for 4K video editing. There is one more difference though: it seems like the non touch bar Macbook Pro uses 1866MHz LPDDR3 RAM while the touch bar version uses 2133MHz LPDDR3, making the RAM faster. Again, faster RAM unfortunately does not make up for the 16GB limit. In reality, the RAM speed should only have a minor impact on editing performance.
4K in the Real World?
So, how do these facts translate to real world 4K video editing? In their review of the 13-inch touch bar Macbook Pro 2016, the Verge offers some insights. They say that the 13 inch is snappy and “without hiccups” in day-to-day use, 1080p video editing in Adobe Premiere is no problem, but apparently 4K video “becomes unworkable”. In their tests, however, the 13-inch MacBook Pro could handle small 4K files smoothly in Final Cut X.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro can handle small 4K files smoothly in Final Cut Pro, but that isn’t the app that most editors use. It’s not a win where it counts.
In their review, it was a different story with the 15-inch model. According to the Verge, it is a step up from older 15-inch Macbook Pros and it was capable of handling smaller 4K projects in Premiere and Final Cut. But on larger project files “the computer starts lagging pretty seriously” and the performance was better on the 2013 iMac. Wow.
As far as I can tell, this is probably due to the 16GB RAM limit on the Macbook Pro 2016. In terms of speed, at least the 15-inch Macbook Pro 2016 seems to be ready to perform basic 4K video editing tasks, but as soon as you’re working on a bigger project, unfortunately none of the 2016 Macbook Pros seem to be ideal.
Positive Voices
But there are positive voices too. Thomas Grove Carter is a professional editor at Trim who had a chance to spend a week with a 15-inch Macbook Pro 2016. In his article at Huffington Post Tech, Thomas shares his experience working on Final Cut X as “buttery smooth” and says:
the software and hardware are so well integrated it tears strips off “superior spec’d” Windows counterparts in the real world.
Thomas would consider the 15-inch Macbook Pro 2016 his 24/7 edit suite for both office work with 2 connected 5K displays as well as work in the field. He also equipped his setup with USB-C SSD’s, eliminating the need for additional dongles.
Thomas enjoys the touch bar on Final Cut X and seems to suggest that people need to adapt to the design decisions Apple laid out with the new Macbook Pros. If they do, then there’s a lot of power and potential to be harnessed from these machines. In his words:
For me, I love it and I think most people will do too… once they actually touch it.
There are more reviewers saying good things about the new Macbook Pros, but few of them are using the laptops with a 4K editing workflow in mind. As machines for day-to-day office tasks, photo and 1080p video, they probably perform remarkably well, and the build quality and simplicity is beautiful and enjoyable.
Conclusion
I’m trying really hard to love the new Macbook Pros and probably many professionals find themselves in the same position. Even if we don’t like to admit it, Apple has cleverly bound users to their eco system and has been making them adapt to and rely on their systems for a while. With the need for higher resolutions like 4K, more color depth and ever-more complex processes during a 4K workflow, the need for higher performance machines has risen in recent last years also.
So is the new Macbook Pro 2016 fast enough for 4K Video Editing? Unfortunately, it seems like the power of the new 2016 Macbook Pros is not up to speed with this development. Instead, Apple focused on consumer interests, like port simplicity, a more immersive display and sound experience, thinness and lightness. Regardless of whether that touch bar turns out to be a great asset or just a gimmick, the fact of the matter is: we are left with a machine that is too weak to cope with current professional editing trends and standards, and lacks the ergonomics professionals depend upon, like long battery life, versatile ports and the still much-needed SD card slot.
Apple has always had a very narrow set of options that users have had to embrace and adapt to. They dictate the way users should be getting their work done, but this time the changes and decisions seem too drastic and probably many professionals will be left behind. If it is really true that you can only edit 4K video on a maxed out 15 inch Macbook Pro 2016 with Apple’s proprietary software, that will be certainly be considered by many not to be professional enough, and we’re going to have a problem.
What is your conclusion? Tell us why you think the Macbook Pro 2016 is great / not so great in the comments below.

North America’s most eagerly anticipated film festival is now under way. For 30 years, the Sundance Festival has highlighted the work of American and international filmmakers alike. Countless attendees have reveled in the creativity and brilliance that has been displayed annually since 1985. In the year of the festival’s origin, the Coen brothers’ debut film Blood Simple was the talk of the town—3 decades later, Adobe Premiere Pro seems to be having a similar effect!
Adobe has a lot to shout about with regards to this year’s Sundance festival. It seems that Premiere Pro—and the rest of the Creative Cloud platform—have been making waves this year, with a recent announcement stating that a total of 51 films that are debuting at this year’s indie-loving event. What’s more, the festival, which highlights some of the biggest and brightest emerging talent from the filmmaking industry, is set to showcase a total of 175 films which have utilized Adobe’s software.
In case you enjoy the numbers game, that’s apparently a 143% increase in usage since last year’s Sundance. I’d be willing to bet that there are a few smiling faces at Adobe right now!
One thing that will certainly please the folks at Adobe is the fact that it is not just the indie Sundance talent that has converted to Premiere Pro. Nope, some of Hollywood’s biggest hitters have crossed over to the Creative Cloud, too.
Sundance Festival 2016’s Creative Crowd
As I’ve already alluded to, there’s been a bit of traffic headed in Adobe’s direction from former Avid and Final Cut maestros—including the likes of four-time Oscar-winners the Coen brothers and Deadpool director Tim Miller. Adobe Premiere Pro has made that much of a stir that Miller, along with Deadpool’s editing consultant and workflow specialist Vashi Nedomansky, will be going into more detail as to why they’ve made the switch in Adobe’s panel—Editorial Secrets From “Hail, Caesar!” And “Deadpool”—which is scheduled for 15:30-16:30, January 23rd.
Thankfully, for those of us who are unable to attend, Adobe are making a recording available at www.adobe.com/go/video.
Regarding Adobe Premiere Pro, Miller said “Adobe really revamped Premiere Pro CC from the ground up. I love the interoperability with other programs like After Effects CC and the ability to do quick composites,” he then went on to add “we need an uninterrupted workflow between the idea and output. Premiere Pro CC is clean and fast, which is what I want.”
Of course, it’s not just film-industry elites making the switch, plenty of Sundance Festival 2016’s indie productions used Adobe’s creative software. With everything from in-competition feature films like Christine and Swiss Army Man to documentaries and shorts such as Richard Linklater – Dream is Destiny, Adobe’s Creative Cloud video tools have impacted on plenty of the Sundance Festival filmmakers’ workflow.
“Our story relies on combining decades-old archival footage with interviews from the present. We cut the film in Adobe Premiere Pro CC with incredible results,” explained Louis Black, co-director of Richard Linklater – Dream is Destiny.
Adobe’s Investment in the Future of Filmmaking
This year, Adobe are sponsoring the NEXT category of films—a category of outspoken works which combine digital technology with uninhibited creativity. NEXT embodies the innovative, bold spirit that is ubiquitous among indie filmmakers—it looks to revolutionize the next generation of filmmaking in a way that is truly unique.
In a further move to get the word out about up-and-coming filmmakers, Adobe has also partnered with Sundance Ignite, via Project 1324—an initiative designed to provide promising young talent a chance at spotlighting their projects. The winners of this initiative will go on to receive a Sundance Ignite Fellowship, which comes with opportunities to work with—and learn from—Sundance alumni.
What’s next for the Creative Cloud?
So, what’s in the pipeline following Adobe’s Sundance success?
Fortunately for the recent converts, as well as current users of the Creative Cloud, Adobe won’t be resting on their laurels. As impressive as the numbers are for this year’s festival, it seems that Adobe is aiming higher for next year’s outing.
Some of Creative Cloud’s video tools are due an update before the end of January, and here’s a taste of what’s to come:
General performance enhancements within the cloud, most noticeably to Premiere Pro
100,000 4K high-quality video assets are to be added to the video content available in Adobe Stock. Premiere Pro and After Effects CC users will have the ability to search, download, and license the assets available on Adobe Stock. This feature is already a part of Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator
The Cineware Live 3D pipeline is set to be enhanced with improved workflow and performance. For the first time, OpenGL rendering will be available, with vast improvements in speed over the current software rendering option
Compositing will become more efficient, thanks to Live Link allowing the synchronization of the timelines between After Effects CC and Cinema 4D
Specific Takes can be rendered from within a Cinema 4D project file
Does the Festival’s Love of the Cloud Indicate a Lasting Trend?
Whether you’re an Avid fan, a Final Cut follower, or an Adobe junkie, one thing is undeniable. An increase in Adobe CC use of 143% is certainly an impressive feat. Could this be indicative of a power shift in the world of video editing for professionals and amateurs alike?
Who knows? It is certainly exciting to think of a world where Avid Media Composer has some serious competition—and maybe Adobe’s Sundance success can be what spurs them on to really take their video editing software to the next level!
Either way, I am looking forward to seeing the quality that Premiere Pro has been producing lately—and thanks to Sundance Festival 2016, I’ll have 175 opportunities to find out!
Do you think that Adobe could be tipping the scales of video editing in their favor? Have you tried using Premiere Pro recently and if so, how was it? Let us know in the comments!

A note, by default the update deletes your 2014 copy, and in doing so you’ll lost all plugins and personal settings! You can counter this by clicking on update, choose advanced options, deselect delete old versions.
Adobe users, wait no longer. Creative Cloud 2015 is here. This update gives video editors many powerful new tools, but in-app color grading gets a significant step up.
A few months ago Adobe announced the next version of Creative Cloud, and it instantly generated a lot buzz. Well, that update is here. Creative Cloud users can now download CC 2015 apps and test out the new powerful tools.
So, what’s new? Perhaps the most anticipated new feature is the Lumetri Color Panel in Premiere Pro CC. This new panel allows you to make basic and advanced color corrections directly within the panel. You don’t have to individually apply effects, but rather simply select a desired clip and adjust its properties in the Lumetri panel. The controls will seem familiar to Lightroom users, allowing for both basic corrections like white balance, exposure, etc., as well as applying curves, Lumetri looks, and other advanced corrections. Another great feature isn’t new, but rather an improvement on a long-present tool in Premiere. The waveform monitor, vectorscope, and other scopes within Premiere Pro are much more responsive. In the past scopes within Premiere Pro were rather sluggish, so it’s nice to see these new scopes with realtime updates.
Another new feature will be of particular interest to documentary filmmakers or news editors. The Morph Cut tool allows you to seamlessly transition between jump cuts without cutting away to b-roll. It’s found in the transitions folder, and once applied Premiere Pro analyzes the footage in the background allowing you to continue editing. It should be interesting to see how well this effect works.
Premiere Pro isn’t the only video app to receive updates, however. After Effects has a new Uninterrupted Preview feature which allows you to change properties in a composition without stopping playback. And Media Encoder has a new handy feature as well. Those working in broadcast will appreciate the new Time Tuner tool which allows for quick changes in a video’s duration.
To see more details about the release of Creative Cloud 2015, check out this article on Adobe’s blog.